Author Archives: Littlehampton United

Are you ready for the “new normal”? United Reformed Church (URC) Synod Moderators have produced a new booklet to help churches and ministers move forward once the Covid-19 lockdown eases. Share this article The booklet, Ready for the new “normal”: A discussion paper for a pandemic recovery and resumption plan, aims to help carry the URC past the lockdown and into a healthy future. On Sunday, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, is expected to address the nation to outline plans for the next stage of the lockdown. Read More … … Continue reading →

At first, the news that churches would need to cancel services due to Covid-19 was met with dismay. In March, the government had written to vulnerable people, including people aged over 70, pregnant women, and those with specific underlying health conditions advising that they should self-isolate for 12 weeks to protect themselves from the coronavirus pandemic. At a time when people would most want to seek comfort from their church, friends and loved ones, they were being forced to isolate themselves from those support networks, albeit for their own good. But United Reformed Churches (URC), like Christ Church in Petts Wood,… Continue reading →

The dedication and commitment of frontline NHS workers helping to battle Covid-19 and save lives across the UK has received much deserved recognition and praise. Many have spent long hours away from their loved-ones to look after the family members of others. In doing so, more than 100 have sadly lost their lives. Katie Henderson, Immediate-past United Reformed Church (URC) Youth Assembly co-Moderator, is a much-valued nurse who gives an insight into what life is like on a hospital ward in this reflection. Read More … … Continue reading →

For many of us, the world has become very small over the last few weeks. Confined by the walls of our homes, we’re simultaneously more isolated than ever from the world around us and yet more unified in shared experience. … Continue reading →

Calling all photo enthusiasts! The United Reformed Church (URC) Communications Department is seeking photographs from URC members that represent the life of the denomination. Using the theme ‘24 hours in the life of the URC’ (before lockdown!), to cover any activity that shows what the URC does, the images will initially be as part of the General Assembly’s Book of Reports. By submitting them, you will be granting the URC permission to use the photographs in print and digitally. For example, they could be added to the URC’s Flickr account, which is public for all URCs to use, or used by… Continue reading →

It is with deep sadness that the United Reformed Church (URC) announces the death of the Revd Bernard Thorogood, who died today peacefully in a Sydney hospital aged 92. He was General Secretary of the URC from 1980 to 1992, after which he retired to Australia. Prior to that he served as General Secretary of CWM from 1970 to 1980 (bringing CWM into being in its current form), and through most of the 1950s and 1960s he was a missionary in the Pacific islands – mainly in the Cook Islands. Read More … … Continue reading →

As in the words of a popular British children’s programme, why don’t you switch off the TV and do something less boring instead during this coronavirus lockdown? Read May’s edition of the United Reformed Church’s Reform magazine. This issue, the first produced under the lockdown, is jam-packed with news, comment, inspiration, and debate. Read More … … Continue reading →

United Reformed Church (URC) members in Chester are preparing freshly cooked meals for those who are vulnerable during the coronavirus crisis. The Revd Ruth Wilson, Minister of both Upton and Vicars Cross URCs, explained: “We wanted to help during this time, so contacted our local councillors to see how we could support others.” Read More … … Continue reading →

Children in St Helen’s, in the United Reformed Church’s (URC) Mersey Synod, have been delivering care parcels to the vulnerable in their community. Becky Taylor, a Christ Church Haydock URC Girl’s Brigade leader, explained that although the children weren’t meeting due to social distancing rules, they wanted to do something to help. Read More … … Continue reading →

The United Reformed Church (URC) General Assembly Moderators have joined anti-poverty campaigners in adding their names to an open letter about the “two-child rule” which limits benefit payments to families. Published in The Guardian newspaper, the letter, coordinated by the All Kids Count coalition, states that the tens of thousands of families who have had to claim Universal Credit (UC) in the past few weeks because of Covid-19, will discover that there is no support in UC for their third or subsequent child if that child was born after April 2017, when the ‘two-child limit’ policy came into effect. Only that child’s older siblings will be… Continue reading →